


Cyclone meets Cyclone.

by leveragus



Category: Leverage, Scorpion (TV 2014)
Genre: Community: leveragexchange, Crossover, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-24
Updated: 2014-12-24
Packaged: 2018-03-03 06:39:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,521
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2841683
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leveragus/pseuds/leveragus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Leverage team meets The Scorpion team during a heist.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cyclone meets Cyclone.

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Mizzy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mizzy/gifts).



> It is set during Leverage season 1 and Scorpion season 1.

**Cyclone meets Cyclone.**

_Los Angeles_

“Okay Parker, I’ve disabled the alarms and the cameras are off. You have 90 seconds to enter the office and do your thing.” Came Hardison’s voice through comms.

The blonde thief was hanging upside down outside the 54th floor of the building. “Sure,” she shrugged as she positioned the glass cutter against the window. Ten seconds later she had created a hole big enough for her to slide through. The safe was behind a horrible false painting, how typical!

“Guys, hurry up!” Eliot Spencer hissed. “Something is not right here. It’s too quiet…”

The hitter was standing just outside the building, ready to intervene if anything went wrong.

“Please,” Hardison smug voice echoed in their ears. “Would you relax? I’ve checked everything. It’s all perfectly sa…”

Suddenly alarms went off, making a strong annoy noise. Two guards appeared around the corner and one punched Eliot on his left side, making him groan in pain. Once he had recovered, he glared at the young man and rushed to him, punching him on the nose.

Parker turned quickly behind her only to see that her harness, which she had left outside, had gone. Now her only way out was either the stairs or the lift.

“Hardison…” she panted as she was running down the corridor. “I need a way out.”

“I’m trying!” The hacker was typing frenetically at his wireless keyboard. “But something is blocking me out!”

The seconds transform into minutes. Parker didn’t like it. As a thief she needed an immediate exit. She tried thinking of the blueprints she had studied earlier. There was an air shaft two floors above that she could use to climb down. She took a right turn and went for the door leading to the stairs. When she opened the door she came face to face with the barrel of a gun.

Eliot was now surrounded by five guys. His left eye was swallowed and he had a cut on his bottom lip. He tired fighting again when a voice stopped him.

“Homeland Security, freeze!”

Hardison was panicking. “Please answer, please answer.” He tried again his phone. Suddenly the back door of his van opened and two agents were pointing a gun at him.

_Oh, this was bad. Nate was going to kill them!_

**_10 hours earlier._ **

“Nate, you must be joking!” the brunette woman protested with her British accent. Sophie Devereaux was sitting at the conference table of their Leverage Consulting and Associate. One hand was holding her head propped while the other one was stirring a spoon in her cup of tea.

“Why? What’s wrong?” the middle aged man. His eyes were tired and red. A clear indication that he had spent the night drinking and the only sleep he had got was from passing out after drinking too much whiskey.

“It’s two days before Christmas.” Alec Hardison protested too “We can’t take a job now. We’ve got plans.”

“It’s an easy job. In and out. We get the documents we need from the safe and we prove that Pandora’s CEO knew about the contaminated water.”

“I’ve got a flight booked for tomorrow morning. My Nana is waiting for me for Christmas. And she makes these incredible cookies…” his mouth was already watering at the thought. “And the turkey…”

“And I’m spending the holidays with my sister and nephew.” Eliot added.

Nate turned towards the two women. “Have you got plans for Christmas too?”

The grifter shrugged. “I usually spend the holiday relaxing on the beach. I’m not really into all the festivities.”

“Nobody is waiting for me for Christmas.” Parker answered. “I usually try and see if I can catch Santa, but he is very fast. I want to know how gets in all those houses in one night”

The others looked at her like she was crazy, but they just shook their heads. After working together for four months they still had trouble understanding the quirkiness of the blonde thief.

“Look guys, we need to do this for the Sheppards.” Nate closed any sign of arguments by leaving the room. The rest of the team had worked on the details. Of course it wasn’t a simple in and out job as Nate had put it.

Hardison had to create a persona for Sophie so she could make contact with Pandora’s CEO, Michael Carter, and get his fingerprints that Parker could use to access the safe. Getting the blueprints of the building and bypassing the security levels had been easy. They had been left mostly on their own as Nate was too busy being hangover to be of any help.

An hour later before they had to infiltrate the building, Nate had mysteriously disappeared.

“Can’t you trace him?” Eliot puffed pacing back and forward.

Hardison shook his head. “He took his earbud off and he doesn’t have his cell.”

“This is exactly what I was afraid of.” The hitter snapped. “He can barely keep it together during any other time of the year, but at Christmas… we have plans, we don’t need this bullshit!”

“What shall we do?” Everyone turned towards the grifter for instruction.

Sophie sighed. “You guys continue as planned, I’ll see if I can find him…” she picked her purse off and turned towards the door. “… somewhere!”

Sophie had found Nate drinking at a bar a few blocks from their offices. She knew he liked to go there and drink.

“Nate!” she shouted and hit the back of his head.

He jumped in his chair and lifted his hand up to cover where she had hit him. “Sophie! What the hell!” he glared at her.

“Do you have any idea what time it is?”

He shrugged before lifting his glass for another sip, but the grifter snatched the tumbler glass from his hand. “I don’t know… six?”

“Try more 10. We were supposed to be at Pandora’s.” She laid the glass on the counter with force making the liquid spill.

“Shit!” He muttered. He quickly got up only to tumble on his feet and Sophie caught him before he would fall.

“You are not going anywhere like this.” She ordered a coffee and paid Nate’s bill.

It was hard for her to see him like this. Just the shadow of the man he used to be. The pain, the guilt and the last years spent finding solace at the bottom of the bottle had consumed him.

“Oh Nate,” she whispered running a hand through his messy hair. “You need to snap out of it.” She was almost afraid to leave him alone during the holidays, wondering if they were going to find him still alive when they came back.

“It hurts so much, Sophie.” He said in a sigh. “Christmas was his favourite time of the year, he was so happy. When he died a piece of me did too and I can’t get it back, Sophie… I can’t get it back.” His eyes were glistering with unshed tears.

She slightly leaned against him, her forehead touching the side of his head. “Then let us help you Nate. Let us be there for you.”

He turned his head and looked into her pleading eyes; a small nod was his answer.

“But first,” she sat up. “Let’s go and steal some documents!” she tried to imitate his catching phrase.

He chuckled “Nice try… but still quiet not right.”

When they arrived at Pandora’s building, they saw that it was surrounded by police officers and homeland security. In the distance they saw Parker, Eliot and Hardison, all three in handcuffs and being escorted towards a black van.

“What the hell happened here?” Nate soon sobered up as he watched the scene enfolded before his eyes. He opened the passenger door and got out.

“No Nate, what…?” Sophie shook her head in exasperation. She was conflicted. She had spent all her life running from the police, not going disarmed and willing towards them, but her team and the people she was soon considering family were in trouble and she couldn’t stay there doing nothing or running away.

“I’m going to regret this.” She muttered as she opened the door and followed Nate.

“What’s going on here?” Nate approached one of the officers.

“Sir!” He soon shouted at him. “Stop right there.”

“I need to speak to whoever is in charge here. I’m the one you’re looking for.” Nate put his hands up in surrender.  Sophie was standing right beside him and she did the same.

The police officer had now a gun trained on him and was talking to someone through his head set.

“Follow me!” he ordered.

“Nate, I hope you know what you are doing.” She hissed through the corner of her mouth.

They were taken to the same black van they saw the others enter. When they climbed inside, Eliot lifted his eyebrows in surprise.

“If this is some kind of rescue attempt, it sucks.” Hardison snapped. He was angry and disappointed with Nate. It was his job to protected them, make sure the plan worked, but he had been too busy being sorry himself and getting drunk.

Nate could feel all their eyes on him. They were angry, they were wondering if they could still trust him. Was he too far gone?

The drive didn’t take them very far. Twenty minutes later the van stopped and a few seconds later the back door opened. Nate could see Eliot studying his surroundings, trying to think how to get them out of this mess. He slowly shook his head and Eliot obeyed with a grunt.

It was dark outside and they didn’t recognize the place. It certainly wasn’t a police station or a federal building and Nate had a bad feeling about it.

They were pushed inside what seems to be an abandoned warehouse, except it was abandoned, it looked like it was an office of some sort. What immediately caught their attention was the big light sign with SCORPION written on.

“Eliot Spencer.” A voice announced itself from the top of the stairs.

Eliot quickly turned around and saw a middle-aged man with grey hair and deep blue eyes walking his way. Soon flashes from the past filled his mind. Scenes from another life, one that he was happy to have left behind.

“Agent Cabe Gallo.” The hitter replied.

“The last time I saw you, you were saving my ass in Kabul.” The older man smirked. “My... a lot of time has passed since then.”

“Yeah!” Eliot still didn’t know if he could trust him.

“I see we have problem here.” He nodded at one of the guards. “Take them to the interrogation room.”

The interrogation room wasn’t really traditional. One table, five chairs at one side and another at the other and probably a hidden camera.

“So, why were you trying to steal from Michael Carter?” Special Agent Gallo asked after they were all seated.

“Don’t we have the right to call our lawyer?” Nate asked trying to asset the situation.

“I don’t think you will need one Mister Nathan Ford.” Nate tried to hide his surprise unsuccessfully. “Yes, we know all about you. I immediately recognized Eliot Spencer, but we had trouble identifying the others.” He pointed at Hardison, Parker and Sophie. “You’re hacker here did a really good job at hiding your traces. It took a while for our experts to find you in the system.”

Soon the door opened and a tall young man with curly brown hair walked in.

“Walter!” Gallo snapped. “I thought I told you to wait outside.”

Walter O’Brien shrugged. “Toby assured me that they are not dangerous. Maybe that guy over there” he nodded towards Eliot. “If provoked.” He studied the group of people still handcuffed. “We’ve been working for days on a plan to take Michael Carter down what we didn’t consider was the variable of her showing unexpectedly.” His eyes stopped on Sophie. “I didn’t know what to make of it. Then we realized some had accessed the blueprints of the building. Tracking you has been easy and when we realized that you were going to hit the safe tonight, it was all about timing.” He said with a smug smile.

“Since when does Homeland Security plan heists?” Nate wondered arching his eyebrow.

“You’ve studied your file. And your association, Leverage Associate, is it?” Gallo told them.

“Actually it’s Leverage Consulting and Associate. It took me a while to create it.” Hardison corrected him with a frown. He shifted in his chair. Those handcuffs were starting to hurt his wrists.

“Yes, nice front for what you’re really doing. Our behaviorist expert thinks that you could help us out.”

“I still think that we don’t need help.” Walter interrupted him. “We’ve always managed.”

“Actually what I said…” A funny looking bearded man with a black hat on his head rushed inside. “… was that: he” he pointed at Nate. “has a drinking problem due to the loss of his son that left him traumatized, she…” he pointed at Sophie. “…has got personality disorder. The blonde one reminds me a lot of Happy, emotional traumatized because of abandonment. He…” he nodded at Hardison. “… clearly has got daddy issues. He needs approval for everything he does and he's kind of childish. That one…” he sighed. “I’m actually scared of that one. He is unpredictable.” He unconsciously took a step back as his eyes stayed firmly on the hitter. “They undoubtedly all have high IQs, but…”

“We don’t need them.” Walter repeated again.

Three other people walked inside; two women and a man. Happy, Sylvester and Paige were fed up watching everything from the monitors and joined the fun.

Gallo rolled his eyes. “You really don’t know how these interrogations work.”

“Who are you people?” Hardison exclaimed.

“We are Scorpion, a group of geniuses who help homeland security to solve complex problems.”

“Ok…”

“How do you fit in the all Pandora’s mess?” Sophie asked curiously. “Our clients only contacted us today. It was a simple in and out job. Get the evidence and leave the scene.”

“Michael Carter has a lot to respond other than contaminating water. We think he is planning on adding a genetically modified virus into the water tanks and create his own little experiment.”

“If we’re going to do all the explanations could we have these off, please?” Nate lifted his arms to showed them the cuffs.

“Sure.” Gallo started unlocking the handcuffs.

“May I say that I’m not very comfortable being in a room full of free criminals.”  The tall very big guy said nervously. “I mean… there’s one on three chances that he could kill us with a pen.”

“Will you all relax?” Eliot grunted and rubbed his wrists once they were free. “I won’t kill anyone.” He paused. “I won’t make promises about punching. I can barely tolerate Hardison; I don’t need more nerds in my life.”

“That’s not very reassuring.”

“Can we get back to the issue?” Nate sighed. “We promised to help the Sheppards have a settlement for their son being poisoned.”

“There are going to be more dead people, if we don’t stop Carter.” Walter said.

“Aren’t you the good guys?” Parker asked. “Why can’t you just arrest the guy?”

“We don’t have any evidence. I can’t find anything in his servers. We only had an anonymous tip call. That’s all. And we can’t get a warrant.” Gallo explained.

“Well, before you marched in and arrested us. We were about to get your damn evidence.” Hardison still wasn’t happy about the all being arrested and cuffed.

“Actually, you were going to find an empty safe.” Walter told them smugly. “Carter has got a second base that we can’t find.”

“But marching in to arrest you, gave us the opportunity to legally enter the building and for Walter to plant a bug on his persona.”

“Carter doesn’t trust technology, so we couldn’t…”

“… trace his phone.” Hardison finished the sentence. “I know.”

 “What do you need us for?” Nate couldn’t figure out what still had to be done. It seemed that their failed heist gave them the opportunity they needed.

“We need you to continue the play a con on Carter.” Walter explained to him. “You’ve already made contact.” He turned towards Sophie. “Miss Erika Potts.”

Nate shook his head. “I don’t know… apparently we’ve gone into this unprepared. It’s risky. How do we know we’re not already compromised?”

“Because we’ve already dealt with it. I’ve worked all the possible scenarios, all the variables…” Walter was getting frustrated, he wasn’t used to questioned. “I have an IQ of 197. I know what I’m talking about.”

“What Walter means to say is that you can trust us.” Paige, who had been quiet since then, decided to intervene and do her part of the job: deal with the communication.

Nate still looked pensive. He exchanged glances with the other members of his team and then he finally nodded. “Okay, let’s do this. But I want to check all those plans of yours and variables.”

Walter was about to protest, but Gallo stopped him. “Sure. Follow us.”

“And you’ll forgot all about the B&E?”

“Like it’s never happened!”

“How do we know we can trust them?” Happy looked at the bunch of people walking outside the room. She didn’t like having strangers freely walking around their place.

“Because they are a cyclone, like us.” Toby smiled a nudged her forward.

Paige Dineen left for home to take care of her genius son Ralph. Tomorrow was going to be Christmas Eve and she was slightly behind with all the preparations. Even though her son didn’t really show emotions, she knew he loved Christmas and she wanted to make everything perfect for him.

Nate and Walter spent the night looking over the plans. The others just stood there watching and intervened when the words exchanged between them got heated. Sylvester had gone to sleep, mostly because he still felt uncomfortable. Parker and Happy found out that they had a lot in common, especially their passion for harnesses and the mechanics behind them. Toby and Hardison were busy playing some videogames while Eliot and Gallo talked about the d times over a beer. Sophie wanted to sleep too, but she had to stay awake to keep an eye on Nate. By morning she noticed that his hands were shaking and his face and neck were damped with cold sweat.

“What’s wrong with him?” Gallo asked from behind her.

“Nothing!”

“I’ve read his file and I know why he left IYS. He’s going through alcohol withdrawal, is it going to be a problem?”

“Not if he drinks. We need him sharp and unfortunately having a drink will make him go through the day.” She couldn’t hide her worry.

Agent Cabe Gallo watched the man in question as he was arguing again with Walter. He had never met someone who could keep up for so long with Walter’s arguments. He could relate with the man’s past. He too had lost a daughter and his wife left him soon after that. If he hadn’t had his job, he could have been in the same situation: unemployed and drowning his sorrows in alcohol.

Surprisingly the two teams working well together. Sophie continued her game on Carter using her alias. Toby wanted to participate too. He categorized it as a psychological experiment and he joined Sophie as her business partner. Happy thought he was having more fun than he should have. But she repelled down a building with Parker and dove from a moving airplane, so she couldn’t complain either.

By the time it took them to gather the evidence, stop an infection to spread and arrest Michael Carter, the hands of the clock reached midnight and it was Christmas Day.

“Merry Christmas!” exclaimed Paige passing glasses of sparkling wine around.

“You know that Christmas is just a commercial festivity created to increase sales and…”

“Yes, yes… we get Walter! Just enjoy the atmosphere” Paige smiled at him and handed him a glass.

“Merry Christmas!” Agent Gallo handed Nate a glass of whiskey. The mastermind was standing further away from the crowd and looked pensive.

Nate eyed the glass and he was tempted to take it. “No, thank you.”

 Gallo raised his eyebrow in surprise, but said nothing about it. “Thanks for the help. It would have taken us more time to incriminate Carter and it might have been too late.”

“No problem.”

They stood there watching the strange group of people laughing and getting along.

“Sometimes I wonder why some people enter how lives.” Gallo told him. “I guess they are what we need at the time. You found yourself a second chance, don’t through it away.” He left Nate to think about his words.

Nate’s eyes landed on Eliot, who was trying to scare Sylvester, Hardison who with Toby were teasing Happy and Parker and then on Sophie who was sitting with Paige watching Ralph and Walter doing an experiment. Yes, life has given him a second chance and it was up to him to make it work.  

    

  

     

 

 

 

 


End file.
